1. INFORMATION FLOW

2. Compare these two rivers: Which one is easier to navigate? Why?

3. You probably answered that this one is easier, right?

4. This river looks easier to navigate because it flows without interruption

5. It doesn’t mean that one cannot navigate this river. However, it is a lot more difficult.

6. Similarly, if we can make the information flow without interruption, we will have a text that is much easier to read and understand.

7. To accomplish that, there are language devices we can use. They are called COHESIVE DEVICES because they provide cohesion to your writing COHESION = easy, clear flow of information

8. “Cohesive devices are words, phrases or techniques that connect ideas. You may think of these devices as anchors that hold you ideas together” (Inside Academic Writing, p. 40-41)

10. Transition words between sentences

11. Repetition of key words, phrases or information from sentence to sentence.

13. Transition words can indicate several relationships: Here are some of them:

14. Using transition words requires practice and attention, because we have to choose the most appropriate transition for each situation. Remember to check a good dictionary! Also, punctuation is important: always use a comma (,) after a transition word!

15. Repetition of key elements Repeating some of the key elements of the paragraph helps create unity. You don’t have, however, to keep using the same word over and over. You should use pronouns and synonyms as well!

16. For example: Writing is not just about conveying ‘content’ but also about the representation of self. (One of the reasons people find writing difficult is that they do not feel comfortable with the ‘me’ they are portraying in theirwriting. Academic writing in particular often poses a conflict of identity for students in higher education, because the ‘self’ which is inscribed in academic discourse feels alien to them.) Excerpt from the blurb of: Writing and Identity - The discoursal construction of identity in academic writing Roz Ivanič, Lancaster University, 1998

17. Previously mentioned and new information An English language reader will expect that a text develops from something they already know or expect to the new information.

18. Now you try to create a smooth flow of information in you texts!